Madrid in spotlight at new confab

Event to promote export of local pics

Madrid will host a new event, Madrid de Cine, or the Spanish Film Screenings, to promote export sales on local productions and to tubthump the capital as a shooting locale.

Event will run June 18-20 and replaces the Lanzarote Winter Spanish Film Screenings, which held its sixth and final edition in February.

Lanzarote faced two challenges: few top execs from international distribution houses and a lack of big Spanish premieres.

Madrid mini-mart will probably not solve the last issue. But the city’s location close to Western European capitals may well lure a few more suits.

Event will also allow sales companies to spend quality time with buyers presenting pics unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival. Foreign production honchos will be able to link up with most of Spain’s biggest producers. Despite a new vibrancy in the Catalan and Galician film industries, the lion’s share of Spanish production shingles have offices in Madrid.

The Spanish Film Screenings are organized by the ICEX Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade, the ICAA Spanish Film Institute and the Fapae producers org. Other co-organizers are the Madrid Film Commission and Madrid’s regional government and town hall — a sign that politicos are finally taking the film industry more seriously.